The oil and gas industry has developed multiple techniques to detect spills of petroleum products. One significant source of spills is pipeline leaks. One technique pertaining to pipelines involves monitoring pressure drops along a pipeline using pressure sensors all along the pipeline. One other technique involves moving an acoustic detection apparatus above the pipeline while listening for a sound indicative of a leak.
As can be understood, preventing a pipeline from leaking, no matter how small the leak may be, is of great interest, both from environmental and economic perspectives. Although the existing spill detection techniques are satisfactory to a certain degree, there remains room for improvement.